


Heart of the Cards

by tchallabread (courtneylovedcobain)



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Awesome Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Card Games, Dorks in Love, Duel Monsters, Healthy Coping Mechanisms, M/M, Netflix and Chill, Yu-Gi-Oh Cards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 08:50:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6416947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/courtneylovedcobain/pseuds/tchallabread
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It figured that Sam’s boyfriend, a decorated war hero and American icon, would be a fucking weeaboo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heart of the Cards

**Author's Note:**

> Well, tumblr user afro-elf posted "i like those fics where bucky has some new coping mechanism like knitting or boxing or hair braiding or competitive dog hoarding but i really wanna see this asshole get into yu-gi-oh and try to drag his long-suffering boyfriend sam into the nonsense" and who am I to ignore such an amazing prompt.

“Okay…” Sam examined his cards, trying to appear as though he had a better grasp on this game than he did. Which was no grasp at all. “I’ll play Gemini Elf.”

Bucky circled his finger around in the air. “Turn it.”

“What?”

“Turn the card the other way, it’s in defense mode now.”

“I _want_ it in defense mode though because yours is stronger.”

“Right,” Bucky said patiently, “but if you want to play it in defense mode, you put it face down so I can’t see what it is. You never play a card in face up defense mode unless I had a trap card like Light of Intervention or something.”

“That means nothing to me.”

Bucky rolled his eyes. “Just turn it over. Or put it in attack mode.”

Sam put it in attack mode and slipped another card face down in the trap zone. He had a fucking _plan_ in the works here.

Bucky waited a beat before asking, “Are you done with your turn?”

“Yeah.”

“You have to say it.”

“I just did.”

“No, you have to say ‘I end my turn,’ like in the _show_ ,” Bucky argued.

It figured that Sam’s boyfriend, a decorated war hero and American icon, would be a fucking weeaboo.

See, Sam thought debilitating nightmares, PTSD, a general lack of care for personal hygiene, and chaperoning the intake of the world’s longest list of anti-psychotic medications would be the worst he was in for. But he also figured it would even out in the end considering Bucky was the baker of the most astounding lemon bars Sam had ever had the pleasure of weeping over.

And he was pretty cute, too. “ _No question there_ ,” Sam thought cheerily.

But _no_. Instead, Sam was scrolling through their Netflix options one night, shooting for Netflix and chill but falling short when Bucky pointed at the screen and asked “What’s ‘an-neem’?”

“It’s called anime. They’re Japanese cartoon.”

“’Yu-Gi-Oh!’” Bucky read. “It looks ridiculous. Can we watch it?”

Sam had only seen it in passing when his little sister would watch it after school so he figured why not.

He should’ve dropped everything and called Sarah to make sure he wasn’t making a terrible goddamn _mistake_ when he said “Yeah, sure,” thinking if it wasn’t hentai, it probably wasn’t that bad.

It was that bad.

Bucky was completely enraptured. So much so that he made Sam find dubbed versions of the later seasons after he binged the only two seasons on Netflix, and blew $40 on two starter packs and a slew of booster packs.

“ _Sam_. Sammy,” Bucky whined. “Are you paying attention?”

“What? Yeah, you played, uh, a magic card.”

Bucky looked deeply unimpressed. “They’re called _spell_ cards, Sam.”

Okay, Sam _knows_ he’s fucking with him. “What? No way. They call the green ones magic cards in the show!”

“Yeah, but they changed ‘em.”

“ _Why_?” Sam knows he’s being belligerent but Bucky’s already beaten him twice today and Sam really just wants to go take a nap. “You know what? Never mind.” He drew his card grandly. “I play this black dragon with the really long name so I’m not bothering.

“That’s a good card,” Bucky quipped. “But remember? For monsters with more than six stars, you need to tribute two other monster on the field before you can summon it.”

“That’s not how it works in the show.”

“That’s because it’s funner to watch this way.”

“Yeah, well, it’s funner to _play_ this way.”

Bucky frowned before shaking his head. “It’s a good thing you’re pretty.”

Sam could see that Bucky would likely be taking all future games to ever-indulgent Steve.

“Yo, is the Red-Eyes Black Dragon stronger than the Blue-Eyes White Dragon?”

Bucky smiled, pleased that Sam was picking things up. He drew a card from his deck. “Nah, Blue-Eyes is 600 points stronger.” He dropped a spell— _magic—_ card on the field before dropping two more in the graveyard and ending his turn. “It has an extra star, too.”

Sam blew a raspberry. “Figures they’d make the white one stronger.” That drew a laugh from Bucky. “Some bullshit right there.”

Sam drew a fresh card from his deck before stilling.

“Is this really a kid’s game?” he asked after a moment, staring intently at his card.

Bucky made that face that made him look like a cross between Bert from Sesame Street and a duck. “Adults play it too. There’s tournaments—”

Sam interrupted the tirade. “No, that’s fine but…” he turned the card to show Bucky. “This doesn’t really look kid-friendly.”

Bucky leaned in to see the card before he started guffawing with laughter.

Dark Magician Girl, the monster card was called. Sam knows Bucky really likes this one and it’s pretty clear to him why now. Depicted on the card was a pretty blonde that looked neither dark nor like a monster. Garbed in a skimpy pink and blue dress that was blown up around her thighs, she had a more than generous amount of cleavage popping out of her top. Not to mention she was straddling her fairly phallic magic wand.

“Okay,” Bucky said through his laughter, wiping a finger under his eye. “Maybe you have a point.”

“Maybe? _Maybe_?” Sam teased, thrusting the card in Bucky’s face who laughed harder as he batted Sam away. “She’s a nip-slip away from being hentai!”

Bucky blinked. “What’s hentai?”

**Author's Note:**

> In case you were wondering, I _did_ go looking for my Nintendo DS to use my Yu-Gi-Oh! GBA game for inspiration, but I couldn't find it. :( Also, "an-neem" is how I pronounced anime for the first ten years of my life lmao.
> 
> [Visit me on tumblr](http://courtneylovedcobain.tumblr.com/) :)


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